The first mark Samuel Dickie made on Albion was as a student.
While a student at Albion, he showed much interest in
mathematics and was known for solving difficult mathematical
equations, spending hours working through the intricacies of a
problem. He graduated in 1872.
Six months after graduating from Albion, Dr. Dickie was married to
Mary Brockway, the daughter of one of Michigan Methodism’s most
widely known clergymen, Rev. William H. Brockway.
The Dickies had 4 children who all attended Albion as well:
Clarissa Dickie Stewart, Class of 1894; Ada Dickie Hamblen, 1898;
Mary Dickie Gillett, 1904; and Brockway Dickie, 1913.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Brockway Dickie, Josephine E.
Dickie and Samuel Dickie II were also graduates of Albion, 1937 and
1940 respectively.
For 5 years after graduating from Albion, Samuel Dickie taught in
the Dansville Union School and became superintendent of the Hastings
public schools. In 1877 he was granted an M.S.
degree from Albion and became its professor of mathematics.
As a side note, Dickie also received his doctor of laws
degree from Albion in 1900.
In 1879, he was ordained to the office of deacon by the Michigan
Annual Conference. The same year the Conference
requested his appointment to a professorship in Albion College.
His first contribution to the face of the campus, as a young
professor of mathematics, was made 1882 when he influenced the Board
of Trustees to go ahead with the building of a college observatory.
As a result, Dickie became the College’s first professor of
astronomy in addition to his role as professor of mathematics.
In 1886, Dickie ran for the governorship of Michigan on the
Prohibition ticket. He lost but remained active
in politics for many years. In 1887, as a sworn enemy of alcohol, he
resigned his position on the Albion faculty to take over
chairmanship of the Prohibition Party national committee, at which
point his public speaking began in earnest. He
left his position as chairman of the Prohibition Party to become
editor for The Citizen and The New Voice, two Prohibition Party
publications.
Alongside his political interests, Dickie retained a strong concern
for Methodist matters. In years to come, he
would conduct hundreds of chapel services, preach countless sermons,
and serve as lay delegate to the General Conference seven times.
From 1896-97, Dickie served as mayor of Albion, on the “dry ticket,”
but did not run again due to a sudden need for his attention in
college matters. In July of 1897, Dickie was the
Chairman of the Committee on the Presidency, who were expected to
come up with nominations for a new college president upon the
resignation of Rev. Lewis R. Fiske. It wasn’t
until the close of the fall term at Albion that the Board finally
met to consider a presidential candidate. The
Committee’s nominee was Rev. John P. Ashley, Ph.D., then Principal
of the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima, NY.
In 1901, after considerable contention over backward social
regulations instituted on campus by the Ashley administration,
Albion was again searching for a new president.
After Ashley’s resignation, Dr. Dickie was requested to act as
president until a successor could be elected.
However, it was the consensus of the Board that Dickie should be
Ashley’s successor. By 1901, Dr. Dickie had
served on virtually every committee and functioned in every possible
capacity on campus, including serving for several years without
compensation as the college’s secretary and treasurer, and seemed
the logical man for the job.
As President of Albion, Dr. Dickie inherited a huge debt.
In order to “save” the college, he mortgaged personal
property, apparently using the funds to sustain faculty salaries.
Through shrewd financial campaigning with church officials
and affluent subscribers, Dickie was able to wipe out the deficit
within 2 years. His victory was announced
January 2, 1903 in the Albion Recorder, and there was a great
Jubilee Day for both College and community on January 16th
to celebrate with a four-course turkey dinner, a speech by Governor
Bliss, and music.
After conquering the college debt, Dr. Dickie was able to focus more
on his personal interests. He was a staunch
proponent of the literary societies on campus, in addition to
forensics and debate. He was not enthusiastic
about intercollegiate athletics, but could be seen from time to time
at a game in a dress suit with high collar.
Dickie was an appreciator of music, serving for years as president
of the Albion Musical Festival Association and chairman of a working
committee for the annual May Festival. He was
also active in local business enterprises in Albion, serving as
president of the Albion Buggy Company, co-founder and director of
the Albion Commercial and Savings Bank, and an early advocate for
building the Parker Inn. Dickie’s most notorious
aversion was the use of tobacco in any form, and he did not allow
anyone who used tobacco to compete on a college athletic team or
represent the college in debate or forensics. He
was also not a fan of fraternal organizations, believing them to
provide a foundation for cliques and mayhem, that their members had
unfounded notions of “personal superiority” (Fennimore, 414), and
that they promoted fun over academic scholarship.
Three buildings were added to campus during the Dickie
administration. In 1903, the Lottie L. Gassette
Library was built through a gift from Mrs. Charlotte T. Gassette of
Albion in honor of her deceased daughter, a one-time student of
Albion College. In 1906, the Central Building
was so renovated that a new building was nearly constructed; the
newly renovated facility was dedicated as Robinson Hall.
The final building to go up during Dickie’s administration
was the Epworth Physical Laboratory, dedicated in 1916.
It was also during Dr. Dickie’s administration that the College’s
summer school agreement with the School of Liberal Arts at Bay View
was made. Students were allowed to attend summer
classes at Bay View and transfer the credits back to Albion, on the
condition that the dean and nearly half of the members of the Albion
faculty were hired at Bay View during the summer to make sure that
the policies of the College were enforced.
At age 69, 70 being fixed as the age for retirement at Albion
College, and in his 20th year as Albion College
president, Dickie instructed the Board of Trustees to begin a search
for a new college president. Rev. John W. Laird
of the Mount Vernon Place Church in Baltimore, MD was chosen as his
successor, and in 1921 Samuel Dickie stepped down as president of
Albion College.
President Laird supported two motions by the trustees following Dr.
Dickie’s resignation, one making Dickie President Emeritus of Albion
College and an active member of the Board, and the other that Dickie
be reelected to the position of chairman and treasurer of the
Endowment Fund Committee. In 1922, Dickie
relinquished this position as well. In 1924, two
days after the controversial expulsion of President Laird, Dr.
Dickie resigned from the Board of Trustees. He
was beginning to feel his years, his hearing failing, having spent
55 years at Albion College as student, instructor and president, and
he was ready to sever all formal ties.
Dr. Samuel Dickie died in November of 1925, presumably of a heart
attack, leaving the College and the Albion community to grieve his
great loss.
See Albion College Special Collections for information on the
